


Forget About It

by thevillainofthisstory



Series: Marching Inexorably Forward [5]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Amnesia, Gen, M/M, but danny fixes vlad's mess, i don't want to call it hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 07:15:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13782483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thevillainofthisstory/pseuds/thevillainofthisstory
Summary: Danny is stuck with an amnesiac Vlad after a bizarre accident, but he's determined to fix Vlad's mess. If Vlad doesn't remember being a awful then Danny can't stay mad at him, although amnesiac Vlad is somehow even more rude than normal Vlad. Getting the old Vlad back is really in everyone's best interests.





	Forget About It

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the long delay between updates! I wrote this, and I hated it, so I rewrote it and I still hate it. But you all deserve an update and it's time for me to start fresh on the next installment which will (hopefully) be better. Enjoy!

Danny ignored the soft knocking on his bedroom door. It was locked for a reason, why couldn’t everyone understand that? Locked bedroom doors are usually a good sign that the person inside wants to be alone. Maybe because they’re pissed off and confused, although that might just have been Danny projecting his issues onto the general idea of locked bedroom doors. Not that Danny had issues. Because this was _not_ his fault. It shouldn’t be _his_ problem.

“Danny,” his mother called hesitantly through the door.  “I know this is hard for you, but please come out. We already have enough to worry about without you being so unreasonable.”

Danny ignored her like he had been doing for the past week in favor of pouring over his map of the Ghost Zone again. There had to be something out there that could fix this.

What his family didn’t understand (or Sam and Tucker, for that matter) was that Danny was the only one who could fix this colossal screw up. And it wasn’t even his mess! It was Vlad’s mess because Vlad was a self-centered idiot. Vlad, the high queen of all drama queens, who thought it was a brilliant idea to blow up his own stupid mayoral mansion while he was inside it. So Danny wasn’t being “unreasonable” or “selfish” or “emotionally stunted.” That was Vlad’s job. Danny was, as usual, playing the hero. What could be more heroic than saving the arch nemesis who violated his trust and nearly violated his underaged, nubile young body? That was like, the epitome of heroism. Danny deserved a freaking medal, or maybe the key to the city. The key to the city. He could demand it from Vlad as soon as he got the frootloop back to normal.

That was the least that Danny deserved. Vlad had done something awful. Like, before the stupid mess they were in now. Vlad had done something awful to Danny specifically. There was no other way to spin it. It wasn’t the accidental almost sex that Danny was mad about-he was still trying to figure that part out. No, the issue was how Vlad had abused Danny’s trust; Danny hadn’t even realized that there _was_ trust between them. Instead of reacting like a rational individual and giving Danny time to cool down, Vlad had done…something. They still weren’t sure just **what** their illustrious mayor had done.

Danny had a right to be angry. And sure, he wanted Vlad to suffer a little for his actions. But not unless Danny was the one handing out the punishment. Danny was the only one who had any right to hurt Vlad for taking advantage of him the way he did. But now there was hardly any Vlad left to get angry at.

“Danny, I know you and Vlad were close, but he wouldn’t want you locking yourself up like this,” his mother pleaded. Danny felt a twinge of guilt and then smothered it. His mom didn’t know what she was talking about. Vlad and Danny were as close as you could get while still being miles apart. Two peas in a rotten pod. Or something. No wonder Mr. Lancer was barely passing him in English class.

Eventually his mom gave up just like Danny knew she would. The first couple of days after the accident had been rough on everyone, so Danny’s absence hadn’t really been noticed. Taking care of Vlad was the priority. Now, nearly two weeks later, taking care of Vlad was still the priority but his parents had gotten it in their heads that Danny should be part of the recovery process. Danny was skeptical that recovery, at least the kind that the doctors were prescribing, was even an option. Despite Vlad’s super-secret healing factor and the best equipment money could buy, there really wasn’t anything that could be done about amnesia.

Amnesia, of all things. Danny hadn’t even known that halfas could be affected by something as mundane as memory loss. Danny had had more concussions than he could count, broken every bone in his body, one time he had even seen his own lungs get ripped out. Vlad had undoubtedly gone through worse if that story about carving off a portion of his own chest had been true. Amnesia just seemed so…lame. That’s what took down the indomitable Vlad Masters. Fucking amnesia.

There had been some sort of explosion at the mayor’s residence. The media was. Of course, blaming a ghost attack from and unknown specter. It was Amity Park, after all. Amongst the wreckage, _miraculously_ unharmed, the rescue team found their glorious leader sitting placidly on a pile of timbers. It didn’t take long for the medics to realize that Vlad wasn’t in his right mind. Or less in his right mind than usual, anyway. After a brief stay in the hospital where it was confirmed that Vlad was physically unharmed, Vlad was released into the caring hands of his emergency medical contacts: Jack and Maddie Fenton. Danny had no proof but he sorta suspected that Vlad had only put their names down since Danny himself was still a minor. Placing his fate in the hands of ghost hunters was stupid even for Vlad, but at least this way the older halfa was close to the only other being in existence who had a basic understanding of his biology.

It was that basic understanding that had Danny so confused. Unless Vlad’s brain had been ripped out of his head and he had to grow a new one from scratch, there was no reason for him to have lost his memory. The entire situation was frustrating; Danny hated being the one looking for answers that Vlad didn’t have. Vlad was the one who relished in the unknown. Danny just wanted his archenemy back so he could keep being mad at him. It was kinda hard to be mad at a man who, for all intents and purposes, had never done anything to Danny.

That was the real reason why Danny had been holed up in his room the entire time. Most of his waking hours were spent on the internet or glaring at his map, waiting for a solution to all of his problems to magically appear. The rest of the time was spent avoiding Vlad. Or the person wearing Vlad’s face, anyway. Vlad wasn’t home at the moment. Danny had bumped into him once since the entire mess had started and no one could convince him to do a repeat. Vlad had stared at him without knowing him, a vacant smile and disinterested expression on his face. Danny had felt physically sick afterward. That wasn’t Vlad. That man had no idea who he was.

Danny knew that eventually he’d have to interact with Vlad. His ghost sense still went off whenever the older man ventured past his door; Vlad’s powers were still intact and that was going to become a problem, Danny just knew it. Another problem in the long list of issues he was already avoiding dealing with.

Sam and Tucker thought it was a trap. Normally, Danny would have agreed with them; this was just the sort of stupid stunt that Vlad would have pulled to try and get back at Danny for the pheromone incident. But it didn’t feel like one of Vlad’s traps anymore. And Vlad, even though he was a skilled liar and a politician at heart, wasn’t a good enough actor to pull this off. Besides, Vlad always liked to lord his deception over Danny and watch him squirm. The lack of taunting made Danny think that this was a genuine performance. If that was the case, then Danny was getting impatient for the curtain call.

Sighing, Danny rolled off his bed and stretched. He was just delaying the inevitable. It was time to face the music.

Danny stuck his head out into the hallway cautiously. If he was going to run into Vlad then it was going to be on his terms. He couldn’t stand being taken by surprise at the moment. Not seeing or sensing anyone, Danny made his way downstairs to the kitchen where his mom was making dinner.

“I don’t know how long I can keep doing this, Jack,” his mom was saying softly. There was a hitch in her voice that Danny wished he could ignore. This was hard on her. He was making it even harder by being selfish. “Danny’s completely shut down on us, Vlad isn’t getting any better-”

“Mads, it’ll be alright,” his dad soothed awkwardly. Action had always been the closest thing his dad had to a strong point. All this waiting and hoping must have been frustrating for him too. “You know how stubborn Vladdie is. He’ll pull through eventually. Nothing’s gunna keep him down, not even himself.”

“It’s just that-oh! Danny!” his mother cried, catching sight of him as he edged into the kitchen. Danny found himself wrapped up in a motherly hug that he felt too guilty to return. Vlad had (maybe) trusted him to find the solution for this mess but all he could come up with was nada zilch nothing. Everyone was exhausted with worry and Danny was, as far as they knew, just compounding it. But for Vlad’s sake, and the sake of their secret(s), Danny would just have to muddle through a little longer.

“Can I take Vlad’s dinner up?” he asked awkwardly, avoiding making direct eye contact with either of his parents. It was time to see if the older halfa had noticed any of his powers yet.

“Would you? Oh Danny thank you,” his mother gushed in relief. Handing him a plate of meatloaf and veggies she continued, “Maybe talking to you will stir something up. You and Vlad always did have some sort of connection.”

Danny resisted the urge to snort derisively. His mom didn’t know the half of it. The halfa of it, maybe? Either way, Danny seriously doubted that his presence alone could magically cure Vlad’s amnesia. That wasn’t how his life worked and it sure wasn’t how Vlad’s life worked. “Yeah, I’ll see what I can do,” he sighed.

“Danny, I know you’re taking this hard,” his dad said awkwardly. Jack was the only one who seemed to be holding together despite everything. He would sit with Vlad for hours, pouring over old pictures and telling him stories of the trouble they used to get into. Jack’s presence, in a sensible world, would have been the thing that brought Vlad back to them. They were ‘best friends’ after all. They had a history that spanned two decades. It wasn’t fair to his dad that Danny was the one who Vlad had ended up sharing the most with. “But it means a lot to me that you’re willing to try. He’s not the V-Man we know and love, but he’s not so bad right now. You’ll see.”

Rather than answering, Danny just nodded and headed back out of the kitchen. The plate of food looked good. His dad was having meatloaf night with Vlad after all, Danny thought humorlessly. Back up the stairs he trudged, his dread increasing with every step. Danny didn’t want to face what was behind the guest bedroom door.

It was entirely stupid. Danny was mostly ghostly. He was the thing that went bump in the night, a ghost that other ghosts avoided crossing. Fear shouldn’t have even existed in Danny at that point. But there he was, trembling outside the guest room door like he was 14 and had just seen his first ghost. He had never even been this frightened of the real Vlad.

Steeling himself, Danny balanced the plate of food in one hand and rapped a few times on the door.

“Come in Jack,” Vlad called through the door. Danny opened the door slowly. There was Vlad, seated at the desk with a book open. His back was to Danny, thankfully, so there was no way he’d noticed the younger man’s grimace. “I wanted to ask you about-

“Oh,” he said, interrupting himself as he turned around. Vlad looked surprised and Danny hated it. The real Vlad would never have been surprised by Danny; his ghost sense made it impossible. “You must be Danny.”

“Daniel,” he corrected, ignoring the way his stomach dropped. Vlad never called him Danny unless he was mocking him. It was always Daniel or little badger. Well, it wasn’t little badger anymore he reminded himself sternly. Vlad could start earning that back as soon as he was better.

“I’m sorry, everyone keeps referring to you as Danny and I assumed…” Vlad trailed off uncertainly.

Walking over and depositing the plate on the desk, Danny tried to muster up a smile. It probably looked as forced as it felt. “Everybody else calls me Danny,” he assured the older man, “But you don’t. Ever.”

“And why is that?”

“Because you’re stubborn,” Danny deadpanned. Backing away from the desk Danny perched gingerly on the edge of the bed facing Vlad. The older man was staring at him with vague interest. Danny was under no illusions of familiarity; Vlad had been trapped with the same rotation of Fentons and medical specialists for weeks. A new face was probably a welcome distraction. “And because I’d rather be called Danny you always do the exact opposite.”

Vlad nodded politely a few times as he began picking at his meal. “I see. Tell me then young Daniel, why it has taken so long for you to visit? From your mother’s stories I was under the impression that we were the very best of friends.”

“Hardly,” Danny said with a sigh. It was complicated. Too complicated to drop on amnesiac Vlad without any context. Danny could imagine how well Vlad would take to the truth: that they were the only two of their kind bound together by chance and an awkward potentially mutual attraction that they had to nip in the bud. Yeah, every middle aged man wanted to be told that he routinely beat up teenagers and then tried to seduce them. Instead of trying to even make sense of the truth, Danny opted for an easy lie, “We get along better now than we used to. And I haven’t come to see you because you’re not you and even if we aren’t bosom buddies I’d rather have the old Vlad. No offense.”

“My loss must truly be a blow for you,” Vlad said condescendingly, “If you can’t even manage the basic courtesy to enquire after the wellbeing of a supposed friend.”

“I see your point but have you considered this: you’re a dick and I didn’t want to be around you more than I had to.”

That forced a bark of laughter out of Vlad. “Are you always this combative?” he asked with a chuckle. Danny hated that laugh. That was Vlad’s condescending laugh. This was how Vlad had been when they first met. Nothing Danny could do or say was going to make a difference to this asshole. That didn’t stop his temper from rising.

“Only with selfish, egotistical billionaires who think they can talk down to me because I’m a kid and soooo much less important than they are,” Danny retorted.

“I must say Daniel, you’re not how I expected you to be,” Vlad said lightly as he pushed some carrots around his plate. “Your mother had made us out to be partners in crime. Always getting up to shenanigans like melting your kitchen table. But you’re just an angry teenager with a chip on his shoulder. Frankly, you’re a bit of a disappointment.”

“Yeah well, I’m seventeen. Set the bar a little lower next time,” Danny advised waspishly. Danny hated when Vlad talked down to him. No one else could crawl under his skin and fester like Vlad could.

“If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to finish my meal in peace,” Vlad said dismissively. “You may go now.”

It took all of Danny’s willpower to not take a shot at Vlad. The only thing stopping him was the fact that Vlad didn’t seem to have discovered his powers yet. Without saying anything else, Danny got up and left. The last thing he needed was Vlad telling his parents they had been fighting.

For purely logical and scientific reasons, as he was leaving, Danny froze the rest of Vlad’s meatloaf with a discreet blast of cold. The muffled cursing as Danny made his way down the hall wasn’t as satisfactory as it should have been; Vlad hadn’t noticed him using his powers. That was probably for the best, but now Danny had to worry about the inevitable moment when Vlad discovered what he could do. Hopefully it would be something benign like floating or invisibility, but Danny really had no idea what Vlad’s full arsenal contained. Shooting lasers from his eyes or setting the house on fire might not be the worst-case scenario. Danny was going to have to keep a close eye on Vlad.

* * *

 

Danny’s self-imposed vigil began that night. In his ghost form, Danny hovered invisibly outside of Vlad’s room. Everyone else had gone to bed, but there was still a light shining under the mayor’s door. Cautiously, Danny poked his head through the wall.

Vlad was sitting in the same spot he had been earlier. Danny wondered if he had ever moved. This time, instead of a book Vlad was looking at something on his cell phone. Weighing his options, Danny decided to risk coming closer. If Vlad hadn’t sensed Danny yet then he probably wasn’t going to. Gliding over to Vlad, Danny peered over his shoulder.

He was looking through his picture album. On the screen was a snap of Danny’s mom last Thanksgiving when the turkey had exploded. Danny was a little surprised that Vlad even _had_ pictures on his phone. The next picture was of Jazz and their dad screaming at the TV during the football game. Danny knew he wouldn’t be in any of those photos; Lunchlady had gone on a rampage and Danny had missed most of Thanksgiving dinner. That was the price of heroism, he supposed.

There were other pictures that Danny had no idea Vlad had taken. The camping trip that Jack had insisted on dragging Vlad into. Jazz holding proudly holding up a fish. Maddie and Jack arguing about how to start the fire. Danny himself, drenched and laughing after Vlad had ‘accidentally’ shoved him into the river for being sarcastic.

Not all the pictures were of the Fentons, although most were of family gatherings that Vlad had been dragged into. There were several of Vlad’s cat wearing various bows. A view of the sunset from his office. Another picture showed an aerial view of Amity Park that Vlad must have taken while flying.

Vlad suddenly growled and flung the phone onto his bed. It must have been frustrating to not have any context for those photos. Maybe Vlad had been hoping that looking through them would jog his memory. That surprised Danny almost as much as the photos had; his parents were starting to think that Vlad didn’t actually want his memory back. Most of the time he sat there passively, listening politely to Jack and Maddie’s stories and doing whatever menial things the doctors told him to try. Vlad had been treated the entire situation like a joke.

Knowing Vlad as well as he did, Danny decided it was all an act. Vlad had to be chomping at the bit, trying everything he could think of to get back what he lost. Fighting was what Vlad did. But Vlad was too proud to admit when he needed help. That was fine. Danny was going to help him anyway, whether he asked for it or not. Just as soon as he figured out how.

The next few minutes ticked by in silence. Vlad glared indiscriminately at the wall, obviously somewhere else deep inside his own head. Danny waited as patiently as he could. Vlad had to be up to something. Vlad was always up to something.

Finally, Vlad got up and retrieved the phone with a defeated sigh. “Why can’t I remember?” he muttered as he began flipping through the pictures again.

Danny didn’t have an answer, but this had reignited his determination to find one.

* * *

 

Life in Amity Park didn’t stop just because the mayor was out of commission. Danny had missed a few days of school when Vlad had first moved in with them because it was a ‘family emergency’ and he had suffered a ‘traumatic event.’ Danny was able to milk three days off out of that before his parents got tired of his sulking and forced him to go back. No amount of arguing would budge them. Well, Danny’s standard arguments didn’t budge them. Obviously he couldn’t tell them the truth: that Danny was waiting for his arch-nemesis with whom he was currently furious for sorta sexually taking advantage of him to accidentally discover the secret ghost powers that they shared. Yeah, his parents would let him off school for that. Out of school and right onto the dissection table.

Mr. Lancer was even worse than his parents, though that had been expected. To make up for the days Danny missed and his already terrible grades, Lancer had convinced all the teachers to assign Danny mandatory extra credit. It was an exercise in sadism more than anything, which Danny didn’t need Lancer for; Dash had stepped his game up after hearing that Danny was ‘friends’ with the mayor. Someday Dash was going to notice how none of Danny’s injuries seemed to last very long. Well, Dash probably wouldn’t notice. Dash was an idiot who thought that chocolate milk came from brown cows. But someone was bound to notice eventually.

Danny was so wrapped up in his inner monologue that he almost didn’t notice Vlad coming up behind him. If it weren’t for his ghost sense, that is. That was what had Danny so on edge; he could still sense Vlad’s ghost half. The other man was practically a time bomb and there was no telling what might happen when he finally exploded. Oh wait, yeah there was. Vlad would probably blow up another house or set everything on fire.

Turning away from the homework he had been pointedly ignoring, Danny eyed Vlad distrustfully as he entered the kitchen. “Do you need something?” Danny asked as politely as he could. It still came out really combative. Things between the two of them hadn’t gotten better since the first time Danny had gone to visit not-Vlad. Both of them were stubborn and distrusting by nature so without their mutual ghostly hobby there was really nothing to force them to get along.

“I wasn’t aware that I needed your permission to stroll around my temporary asylum,” Vlad replied resentfully. Opening the freezer, Vlad proceeded to scrounge around for something to eat.

Danny didn’t actually want to fight at the moment. He was exhausted; between Lancer’s scholastic sadism and scouring the Ghost Zone for answers, Danny just didn’t have the energy to verbally spar with Vlad right now.

Vlad didn’t seem to have gotten the détente memo. “What, no scathing rejoinders? No witty repartee? Not even a terse confutation?” he challenged sneeringly as he closed the freezer door. Coming around the table with a fudge bar in his hand, Vlad leaned over Danny’s shoulder. The younger halfa sat completely frozen as Vlad invaded his personal space. It took all of Danny’s willpower to pay attention to Vlad out of the corner of his eye rather than succumb to the memory of the last time they were this close. They hadn’t been so close since that disastrous morning after; if anything was going to set off Vlad’s ghost sense, this would be it. Danny waited tensely for the familiar red plume of vapor, but it never came. With as much power as Vlad had, his powers should have been bursting out of him like a super nova. A core like Vlad’s couldn’t be kept under wraps for long.

“Given the state of this essay,” Vlad drawled as he pulled back ~~thankfully~~ from Danny’s personal space, “I’m unsurprised at your utter ineptitude with charming conversation. When you suggested that I ‘lower the bar’ I hadn’t realized just how debased your intellect truly is.”

Without waiting for a comeback, Vlad shot Danny one last smug look before striding out of the kitchen, frozen fudge bar in hand.

Danny growled uselessly and flopped his head onto the kitchen table. This was getting out of hand. Either Vlad was going to discover his powers and blow the house up, or Danny was going to lose his temper, attack Vlad, and then end up blowing the house up. It had been **weeks** , and Danny was no closer to fixing things than he had been when he had first gotten the news. He was starting to feel a little desperate. Even worse, he was starting to miss the old Vlad.

Slightly to his right, just barely in his periphery vision, was the scorch mark Vlad had left all those weeks ago. Danny didn’t know if he wanted to glare at it or cover it up. This was all so stupid. Danny was mad at Vlad! Not as mad as he had been in those first few days after the pheromone incident, but still pretty steamed. Honestly, the entire thing had been typical Vlad with the ‘withholding information’ and ‘taking advantage of a situation.’ Danny didn’t expect to be exempt from Vlad’s usual diabolical behavior.

He didn’t know what he was expecting from Vlad anymore. And that made him uneasy. For years they had been antagonizing each other and then at some point between Thanksgiving dinners and camping trips and Sunday afternoon football, Vlad had become a constant in his life. Sure, they still hated each other. They had fundamentally different ideas about how to use their powers. Vlad and Danny were too strong willed to give up everything they fought about just because life had what, moved on without them?

No. Danny was just frustrated and over thinking things. Something had to give, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be him.

* * *

 

“I still don’t understand why we can’t just leave him the way he is,” Tucker grumbled as he shoved some more rubble from one pile into another.

“Because if he finds out about his powers while he’s like this, who knows what he’ll do?” Sam pointed out pragmatically. She stopped to wipe some drywall dust off her forehead, which really only smeared it around worse, before continuing, “Besides, the people of this town actually ** _like_** him. If I have to hear my parents moan anymore about how he’s the only politician in town history to ever implement blah blah blah rich people fiscal policy and how his loss is a devastating blow to the one percent, I’m going to lock them under our bowling alley.”

“That’s true,” Tucker grunted as he shoved a beam out of the way. “But they don’t know him like we do. Hey, if we fix him, do you think we’ll get a reward? We had better be gettin’ a reward. Because your arch nemesis is so not worth the number of splinters I have in my hands right now.”

Danny lifted the last few scraps of drywall and tossed them into the haphazard pile of housing detritus that they had managed to move. With his ghost strength, it hadn’t actually been that hard to move all the timbers and walls and roofing. Sam and Tucker had waited until he had done the heavy lifting before coming in and helping him move the smaller stuff. After two and a half hours of working in the dark, illuminated only by the moon and Danny’s otherworldly glow, they had finally found what they were looking for: the entrance to Vlad’s private lab.

“Are you sure we’re going to find anything useful in there?” Tucker asked skeptically as Danny pulled on the bunker door.

The door gave way and Danny stumbled a bit. “I hope so,” he replied as he led the way down the stairs, “Because this is the last thing I could think of.”

Inside the lab was exactly how it had been the last time Danny was down there, except completely wrecked. It was like Vlad’s lab had started hanging out with his parents’ lab and picked up a bunch of bad habits. Beakers were broken and spilled everywhere, tables had flipped and broken, and several of the cabinet doors had fallen from their hinges. The Ghost Portal in the corner was sealed shut and the red light on top was flashing in warning. Hopefully that was just part of some security protocol and not a sign that it was about to blow.

Sam whistled slowly. “How are we even supposed to start making sense of this mess?” she asked, kicking some of the papers strewn across the floor.

“He’s gotta have a security feed, right?” Tucker asked as he pulled out his PDA, “I can hack into it and maybe see what went down.”

Danny shook his head and bent down to begin shuffling the papers together. “There’s no security cameras down here,” Danny said with absolute certainty. “He wouldn’t risk video evidence of his powers. Or any of the other questionable stuff he does.”

The top page in the stack that Danny had gathered was entitled “Anesthetic for Individuals With Partially Spectral Physiology” and was dated the day before the accident. The lump that formed in Danny’s throat took him by surprise. Vlad had started researching the pain relief stuff again. Because of what had happened to Danny’s arm? That was-unexpected.

“Find anything yet?” Sam asked without looking up from her own piles on the counter. “This stuff is…weird. Not take over the world weird, but like, science weird. Not even ghost related science either. I’ve got stuff on jellyfish mating habits, alchemy, and I think this last one is list measuring the flammability of common cloths.”

Danny snorted. “Yeah, that sounds right,” he muttered. Louder he said, “This was from the day before the accident. I found it over here, so maybe his other notes from that day are over here too.”

“Why does he keep all these handwritten notes?” Tucker asked, waiving around a page with a hand drawn diagram of a dissected ectopus. “Does he really-whoa!”

Not paying attention to where he was going, Tucker had tripped over something underneath the general mess on the floor. “What the heck is this thing?” he demanded, yanking a stick out from under the papers. “Seriously, what is this?”

The stick was about two feet long, made of some sort of silver metal, and completely smooth. Sam came over and helped Tucker off the floor while Danny stared at the staff. Was it a staff? It was a little short. Wand, maybe. Either way, Danny didn’t like the look of it. And he really didn’t like the way that Tucker was brandishing it.

“Hey Tuck,” Danny interrupted whatever monologue his best friend had started about eccentric billionaires who could definitely afford to hire maids, “Let me see that, would you?”

“Here dude,” Tucker said as he tossed it carelessly across the room. Danny lunged forward and caught it, compelled by some unknown force that told him that whatever that thing was, it was not a toy. The moment Danny touch the wand, a blinding green flash went off. Everyone screamed, and Tucker and Sam dove behind an overturned table. Danny held on tight as glowing green symbols floated up and down the length of the wand.

“What the hell, Danny?” Sam demanded, peering from her spot behind the table.

“I don’t know!” Danny squeaked.

“How are you doing that?” Tucker asked, hiding behind Sam as a shield. She wasn’t going to let him forget that one.

“I DON’T KNOW!”

Cautiously, his friends edged around the table towards the wand. Danny was holding it as far away from himself as possible. Whatever this thing was, it was powerful. The rod felt warm to the touch, like it had been in someone’s pocket or something. That never boded well.

Sam, being the bravest of them, put her face within a few inches of the wand and studied it for a few moments. “I don’t recognize those symbols. Some kind of dead language, maybe?”

“More like the language of the dead,” Danny replied, “It’s ghostspeak, but written. I can make out some of it. I think it’s a list of names, maybe?”

“Well, we can assume it’s bad news since we found it in Vlad’s not-so-secret lair, but is it the kind of bad news that we’re looking for?” Tucker asked skeptically. “I mean, he’s got a lot of weird stuff down here. This might not even be the weirdest.”

“The wand only reacted when it touched Danny, a ghost,” Sam reasoned. “It must be some kind of ghostly artifact. Even if it’s not what caused Vlad’s amnesia, I don’t think it’s the kind of thing that we can afford to leave lying around on the floor of his dilapidated lab.”

“There’s only one ghost who’ll know for sure,” Danny said as he began looking around for something to put the wand into. Carrying it openly through the Ghost Zone seemed like a terrible idea. “Clockwork will know what to do with it.”

* * *

 

“Give me that,” Clockwork snapped, grabbing the wand out of Danny’s outstretched hand. “Before you end up doing something foolish.”

“So you know what it is?”

Clockwork gave him a withering glare before floating over to the shelf where Danny assumed he kept all of his dangerous collectables. Among the seemingly random pieces of junk, there were a few things that Danny recognized. The key to Pandora’s box, Dan Phantom’s thermos, one of Ghost Writer’s drafts of the Christmas fiasco, and a pair of handcuffs that Danny had been too afraid to ask about, just to name a few. Danny supposed that if a person existed outside of the laws of time and space, they accumulated quite the collection of junk.

“That wand is one of many artifacts of a bygone era,” Clockwork began, his old man face shifting seamlessly into his infant face. Danny was mostly used to that by now. Mostly. “Pariah Dark used it to subjugate other ghosts. He stripped them of their memories and emotions, thus creating perfect servants or, as was more common, perfect soldiers. It was deemed lost millennia ago when the King was locked away. Given the item’s reputation, most ghosts were content to leave it lost.”

“But not Vlad,” Danny interjected. “He wanted it for something.”

Clockwork sighed and stared at Danny for a while. It was hard to judge how long, considering they were currently in a realm where time moved only at the whim of its master, but it was long enough that Danny started to feel fidgety. Clockwork’s undivided attention was a little overwhelming. Even though Danny was faced with it more often than the average ghost, familiarity did not equate to comfort.

Finally, the other ghost gestured for Danny to follow him to the viewing screen. “Plasmius only had fragments of information on the artifact. He did not realize the full extent of its power. Observe,” Clockwork said with a broad gesture toward the screen. Vlad materialized, sitting in his lab with the wand in his hand. He flicked the wand and the screen was filled with a blinding green light. That must have been the explosion. When the light faded, all Danny could see was rubble and dust. Vlad must have been under the debris.

“Okay, so he used the thing without knowing what it was supposed to do. But what was he trying to do and how do I fix it?”

“The wand is able to strip away memories and emotions,” Clockwork repeated emphatically, as though Danny was being particularly thickheaded. “Can you think of a reason Vlad might want to have parts of those removed?”

“No, why would I-” Danny denied immediately, but then a horrible picture started to form. A horrible, horrible-but still entirely Vlad shaped-picture. “The night of the fraternity reunion. When we…” Danny trailed off, too embarrassed to finish the sentence even though Clockwork undoubtedly knew everything.

“The night you nearly succumbed to your mutual desire for affection and companionship from the only other one of your kind, yes,” Clockwork expounded mercilessly. Clockwork had no concept of teenage shame. Or maybe he did, and just enjoyed tormenting Danny. Even though his face was completely impassive, Danny felt like he could see just a little but of smugness breaking through. Even the frickin god of time enjoyed teasing him. Because the rest of the universe wasn’t enough already.

“Ignoring that,” Danny said just a little too loudly, “How do I fix him?”

“Are you certain you want to?”

Danny was taken aback. What kind of stupid question was that? Of course Danny wanted Vlad back. For so many and varied reasons that the thought of not having Vlad, his Vlad, around actually made his chest feel all fluttery and tight like he was about to have an anxiety attack. “Yes,” Danny said with absolute certainty. “I have to fix him.”

Clockwork nodded a few times before saying, “If you’re certain in your choice, I won’t stop you. But know this: whatever choice you make now will have repercussions that last the rest of your life. This is the fulcrum upon which all else will turn. So I ask you again, Danny: do you restore Plasmius’s memory?”

“I already said yes,” Danny repeated. This wasn’t the time for hesitation. If Danny thought about his choice too much, about the consequences, then he might back out. Vlad was a cruel, self-serving, volatile man who consistently placed his own needs and wants above the wellbeing of pretty much everyone else in existence. And Danny was mad at him. But if Danny had learned anything in his last few years of heroics, it was that the right thing to do was never the easy thing to do.

“Then go home. Your friend will be waiting for you.”

“He’s not my friend!” Danny denied, completely horrified. That was a drastic overstatement, right? It’s not like they had inside jokes and secrets and a shared history that no one else could ever know about that bound them together inextricably. That wasn’t friendship. It was…not friendship. Danny didn’t know _what_ it was.

Danny caught Clockwork’s grin as the ghost turned to float back over to his shelf of oddities. “If you say so. Run along, Danny Phantom. You don’t want to be here while I use the wand.”

Not needing to be told twice, Danny sped out of Clockwork’s domain and back in the direction of the Ghost Portal.

* * *

 

Somehow it was still the middle of the night by the time Danny made it back to the lab. Being friends with a ghost who could control time occasionally had its perks. Floating silently up through the ceiling, Danny made his way to Vlad’s room. Outside the door, he paused.

What if Clockwork wasn’t done yet? What if it didn’t work? If Danny went in there and Vlad wasn’t Vlad, he could wake the whole house up screaming about a ghost. Or worse, Vlad could get spooked and activate his powers. And then the house would wake up, and Vlad’s cover would be blown, and everything would somehow be even worse than it already was. That’s just how Danny’s life worked.

Taking a deep breath, Danny passed through the door. Vlad was curled up on his side, facing away from Danny. It was the moment of truth.

“Vlad,” Danny whispered as he shook the older halfa’s shoulder firmly. “Vlad, wake up.”

“Nnggnng,” Vlad groaned, reaching up to shove Danny’s hand away. “Go away, Daniel,” he groaned, shuffling deeper into the blankets.

Alright, time for plan b. Chilling his hand until frost radiated from his skin, Danny reached for Vlad’s shoulder again.

“Daniel!” Vlad yelped, jerking upright. Angry red eyes glared up at Danny who was floating just above the bed. “What are you-” Vlad stopped. He stared down at the bed, back up to Danny who was watching tensely, and then back to his own hands. “How did you…?”

“Do you remember everything?” Danny asked cautiously. Vlad had flashed his angry eyes, and he wasn’t freaking out about a ghost hovering above his bed. Those were good signs, but Danny had to be absolutely sure.

“I, that is to say,” Vlad floundered for a moment. Danny grinned. It was a rare thing for Vlad to be the one flustered without anything smooth to say. Danny hadn’t realized how enjoyable that was; no wonder Vlad liked to keep him off balance so much. “I believe-”

“Shut up, fruitloop,” Danny interrupted gleefully. Vlad’s answering glare was the most beautiful thing he had seen in weeks. “Do you have any idea how much of a pain in the ass you’ve been?”

“I realize that my behavior has been less than-”

“Shut up,” Danny interrupted again, just because he could. “Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up-”

Somehow, in his relief at having Vlad fixed and his glee at being able to harass him again, Danny had forgotten how fast Vlad could move. Before he knew what was happening, the younger halfa found himself dragged down until he was nose to nose with an angry Vlad Masters. The scary eyes had never looked better.

“I have warned you about continuing that habit,” Vlad growled.

“You do remember!” Danny exclaimed gleefully. Vlad’s eye was starting to twitch; Danny counted that as a win. “Do you know how much you suck when you’re not you? No powers, no sense of humor…you were no fun at all.”

Letting go of Danny’s shirt, Vlad sighed and ran a hand through his rumpled silver hair. It was loose. Looking around, Danny found the discarded hair tie sticking out from under one of the pillows. There was something delightful about having Vlad back to normal and alone with Danny. Sure, they had a history of making terrible decisions when left alone together. But Danny figured he was owed one more round of bad ideas for saving his nemesis. He could go back to hating Vlad in the morning but for now, well, Danny figured he could blame this on the adrenaline and relief of saving the day.

“My behavior over the last several weeks has been entirely reprehensible,” Vlad admitted quietly, staring down at his lap. Taking advantage of Vlad’s uncharacteristic bout of self-consciousness, Danny floated around behind him. “My intent was never to-Daniel, what are you doing?”

“Fixshing your schtupid ponytail,” Danny said with the hair tie between his teeth as he ran his fingers through the only slightly tangled strands of silver hair.

“Fixing my-” Vlad gritted out in a strangled voice. “I am attempting to apologize for my behavior during these last several weeks, and you’re concerned about my _hair_?”

Danny ignored him in favor of gathering all the strands of hair from around Vlad’s face, studiously avoiding more contact with his ears than necessary. Danny might have been stupid, but he wasn’t an idiot. Or maybe it was the other way around. Either way, he wasn’t trying to get Vlad riled up. Danny was willing to admit, in his own head in the middle of the night in Vlad’s room, that he just needed a little reassurance that Vlad was alright. Was that too much to ask for? Awkward apologies could wait until the morning. Danny still intended to make Vlad work for his forgiveness for the pheromone thing, and now this incident with the whole ‘trying to wipe his own memory’ thing had put Vlad squarely in the red. The older halfa was going to be paying for this forever, but forever could wait just a little but longer.

With the ponytail secured, Danny floated back around to look Vlad in the face. “First of all, your shitty behavior wasn’t even you. That asshole had _nothing_ on the kind of fuckery I know you’re capable of. It was annoying, yeah. But you didn’t throw me through a brick wall again, or break any of my bones, or short out my powers then abandon me in the woods. Amnesiac-Vlad doesn’t even make the top twenty on the list of awful things you’ve done to me.”

“Well, I’m glad I’ve set the bar so high that this lapse in behavior barely merits acknowledgement,” Vlad snarked.

Danny snorted and opened his mouth to say something clever about how they were lucky that Danny had set the bar so low on his expectations of Vlad’s ability to be a decent person, when he heard a door open down the hall.

“Vladdie, is that you?” Jack called sleepily through the door.

Panic lanced through Danny like ice. “Quick, sit up and open your arms,” Danny hissed at Vlad. They only had a few seconds before their chances of being ripped apart molecule by molecule skyrocketed. Without waiting for Vlad to sputter out a complaint, Danny dove into his arms and transformed back into his human self. As always, there was something uncomfortably intimate about touching Vlad while transforming. It was like whenever he changed forms, his core was trying to take Vlad with it. Gross. “Hug me and pretend like you’re happy I’m here.”

“If I must,” Vlad sighed, sounding completely put upon while pulling Danny close. “You know, the last time your parents walked in on us you wanted to be as far apart as possible. I’m not sure that this change in strategy is-”

The door being flung wide open saved Vlad from being strangled. “V-man? Danny? Son, what are you doing in Vladdie’s room at this hour? Bad dream?” Jack asked blearily from the door.

For a moment, Danny thanked every ghostly deity he could think of that his parents were so trusting and naïve. Normal people would be a bit more disturbed about finding their teenage son in the arms of a politician in the middle of the night.

“Vlad’s memory came back!” Danny exclaimed cheerfully, releasing Vlad and moving to get off the bed. Vlad’s arms lingered for just a fraction of a second too long, not enough for Jack to notice but definitely enough for Danny. Leave it to Vlad to be pushing the envelope just minutes after Danny had pulled him out the frying pan. Ignoring the older halfa, Danny hopped off the bed. “Isn’t that great?”

His dad’s face looked like someone had told him that Halloween was happening twice this year. “V-man?” Jack asked tearfully, “Are you really back?”

“Well, technically I never left-” The rest of Vlad’s sentence was cut off by several hundred pounds of ghost hunter falling on top of him, bawling. “Jack, JACK!” he tried, shoving uselessly at Jack’s bulk. “Can’t…breathe!”

“I’ll leave you two alone,” Danny said as he ducked out of the guest room and into the hall, cheerfully ignoring Vlad’s murderous glare from around his dad’s shoulder.

For once, things were looking up. Danny wondered how long he had before his life started crashing down again. Hopefully long enough to get a few hours sleep; cleaning up Vlad’s messes was exhausting.


End file.
